Major Fraud Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine in conjunction with the National Police departments carries out the pre-trial investigation into offenses committed by executives of Ukraine’s major tobacco distributor Megapolis Ukraine LLC (Tedis Ukraine LLC since May 2016).

"The preliminary investigation provided sufficient evidence to serve indictment to Odesa resident, Ukrainian oligarch Oleksandr Hranovskyi for committing criminal offenses under part 3 of article 212 (large-scale tax evasion), part 2 of article 205 (running sham business, i.e. creation of shell companies to cover up illegal activities committed in conspiracy with a group of persons) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the report reads.

"The interim investigation established that Hranovskyi in collusion with Tedis Ukraine LLC executives, who have already been served suspicion of committing economic crimes, created illegal scheme to evade payment of taxes which the enterprises controlled by the millionaire benefited from. In view of the foregoing, the investigators and prosecutors charged Hranovskyi with committing the aforementioned offenses on May 23, 2017," the agency said.

The pretrial investigation is ongoing. All necessary investigative and procedural measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the committed criminal offenses and to bring the perpetrators to criminal liability.

Prosecutor General Lutsenko earlier said that the PGO, the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office and the National Police exposed a scheme for massive tax evasion and illegal siphoning of billions of hryvnia abroad, including for financing of terrorism. As found, since 2012 and until today, Russian citizen Kesaev, one of the actual co-owners of the monopoly distributor of tobacco products Megapolis Ukraine Ltd. (Tedis Ukraine), is subject to the decision of the National Security and Defense Council banning the withdrawal of funds from Ukraine. Kesaev furthered the appointment to key positions in Tedis of persons who coordinate their decisions with a member of the board of directors of Russia's Degtyarev Plant, a supplier of arms to the terrorist organizations "DPR" and "LPR."Источник: https://en.censor.net.ua/n441171

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